5 Pounds - Elizabeth II Battle of Britain 1940, Silver Proof

Guernsey's choice to commemorate the Battle of Britain carries an irony the coin itself cannot convey: the island was occupied by German forces from June 1940 through May 1945, making its civilian population among the few British subjects who lived under Nazi administration for the duration of the war. The RAF's victory in the skies that autumn was, for Guernseymen, a distant event they experienced only through German-controlled radio and rumor.

The KM#179a designation distinguishes this silver proof from a base-metal circulation issue struck the same year.